The lies we tell

The dean of admissions at MIT, Marilee Jones, resigned from a 28-year career at the school last week after it was discovered she lied on her resume about having a college degree.

It sounds very familiar, doesn’t it? A public figure gets caught in a tale, is highly embarrassed, and ultimately is either fired or forced to step down.

Jeff Adair

The dean of admissions at MIT, Marilee Jones, resigned from a 28-year career at the school last week after it was discovered she lied on her resume about having a college degree.

It sounds very familiar, doesn’t it? A public figure gets caught in a tale, is highly embarrassed, and ultimately is either fired or forced to step down.

Off the top of my head, I can think of a half dozen or so, starting with James Frye, the author of "Million Little Pieces," who got a tongue-lashing from Oprah after admitting parts of the supposed autobiography were made up.

We have journalists Janet Cooke and Jason Blair (it’s the unforgivable sin in this profession), businessman Ken Lay of Enron, and presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. Well, Clinton was impeached but didn’t have to step down.

Then there’s baseball star Rafael Palmeiro, who lied before Congress that he never used steroids; and George O’Leary, former head coach of Notre Dame.

Remember O’Leary? He’s the only Fighting Irish coach to never lose a single game. That’s because he only held the job for five days. After he was hired in 2001, officials checked his resume, and found he lied about receiving a degree from New York University.

On Friday, the story of Jones’ fall from grace made newspapers across the country, including the front page of the New York Times.

The ironic thing is that Jones, co-author of "Less Stress, More Success: A New Approach to Guiding Your Teen Through College Admissions and Beyond," wrote about the need to live with integrity.

"Holding integrity is sometimes very hard to do because the temptation may be to cheat or cut corners," one passage reads. "But just remember that what goes around comes around."

The bigger story from last week, however, is not Jones’ lie, but the one told over, and over by top military brass to the family and friends of Pat Tillman, the football player turned Army Ranger who was killed by friendly fire in 2004 in Afghanistan. For months, the public was told he was shot by the enemy even though the truth was known by soldiers at the scene that was not the case.

One really shouldn’t be surprised though, since lying comes naturally as eating. Whatever it takes to get ahead seems to be the mantra. Whatever it takes to protect me from blame.

Experts say 10-30 percent of the population exaggerates accomplishments, code for lies, on resumes.

A 2002 survey of 4,500 high school students by the Rutgers Management Education Center found that 75 percent cheated on test, and 50 percent found nothing wrong with cheating. Cheating and lying are the same thing.

There’s no solid statistics on the percentage of people who cheat on taxes, but according to the IRS, the U.S. Treasury loses an estimate $250 billion dollars a year in unreported income.

We teach our children to always tell the truth, but for many it’s mere words. A small lie won’t hurt, we say. No one will ever find out. We lie, so why do we expect the government to tell the truth?

Jeff Adair is a CNC managing editor. He can be reached at jadair@cnc.com.